Star Wars reaches episode 8 with The Last Jedi, Disney's second instalment in the legendary saga and pop cultural phenomenon created by George Lucas 41 years ago. This time the reigns have been handed over to Looper and Brick writer/Director Rian Johnson for both duties. But the question on everyone's lips was would it live up to the previous Disney SW films, the other being the fantastic pre-New Hope set war flick, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.
Well the answer is yes and also no. The Last Jedi is a mixed bag of awesome and WTF moments. Luckily the good out-weigh the bad and it manages to avoid becoming another Attack Of The Clones while still not quite reaching the emotional intensity of Empire Strikes Back. That's not say that TLJ doesn't have emotional moments, it does but as we're not really connected to Rey, Finn and Poe in the same way we were to Han, Luke and Leia, sometimes the dramatic scenes don't resonate as much and fall a little flat. Would i rather watch Rey train and spend more time with Luke than watch Finn and new gal Rose go to an intergalactic casino planet to look for a criminal locksmith? Luke wins everytime. I'll go a bit more into detail about Finn and Rose's Canto Bight adventure a bit further down this review.Plot wise, The Last Jedi is a straight up chase through space movie. The New ORder has found a way of tracking through hyperspace and have the resistance on the run. Finn and new character Rose, head to a planet to find a code breaker to help them infiltrate a New Order space ship. Meanwhile Rey manages to persuade Luke to train her. Poe starts a mutiny while Leia is in a space coma after being blasted into space. She's a Jedi ok. We learn the truth about Rey's parents when Rey gets captured by Kylo and taken to Snoke. Sword fight follows by explosion followed by what's left of the resistance fleet heading for an old rebel base on a distant planet. The resistance make their last stand against the new order just as Luke arrives to take on Kylo one on one while the remaining resistance escape. End of film....
Now here's the where my issues lie. The Last Jedi as i previously stated, is a mixed bag of awesome and WTF moments. These are problems that I as a life long Star Wars fan and also, movie nerd, found to bring the film down.
First off, something felt off from the get go. Poe's phone call to Hux where he's pretending to hold was both cringy and also ripped off from multiple comedies and also felt out of place in this universe. It was, for me, the first use of misplaced humour in the film. It just felt wrong. Luckily that scene was forgotten about thanks to the utter brilliance of the opening space battle. It was insane and even an X-Wing doing a thruster drift, much like the Vipers do in BATTLESTAR GALACTICA.
Problem #2: Finn and Rose' black ops mission to Canto Bight is the films biggest problem, it's an unneeded scene and subplot really adds nothing to the plot except for a set piece involving space horses and a tiny bit of back story for Rose. This subplot was to basically introduce Benicio Del Toro's character DJ, who shows up and disappears almost instantly. This whole subplot was needless and should have stayed on the cutting room floor. I can only assume that it was included because the FX team had a bunch of models created and nowhere to put them, It added an extra 30 minutes to film which was unnecessary.
Problem #3: Leia's dormant Force abilities coming out while she floats through space was not only ridiculous but also very badly handled by Johnson who could have found a much better way to reveal Leia's force power. The scene looks like something from a perfume advert or one of those 90s Guinness ads.
Problem #4: All of the mysteries and set up's set out JJ Abrams and Lawrence Kasdan are basically thrown away as unimportant plot points. The iconic ending of The Force Awakens where Rey hands the Light Sabre to Luke is used as a moment of comedy which kinda pissed me off, this scene could of had a much better pay-off than just being a throw away moment. Rey's parents identity, another big mystery is answered as a throw-away reveal, whether or not it's just Kylo planting a fake revelation into her mind so she would join him, it felt like a reveal that Johnson couldn't be bothered answering and seems like a disservice to the fans who have debated and waited for two years for the revelation. And what's with the Rebel superbowl rings, wtf? stupidest thing ive seen in a star wars movie, well maybe not as bad as the infamous "younglings" line from Revenge Of The Sith.
Now, those are the main issues I had with the film. There were some other part that irked me but not to the point where I hated them, like Luke showing up like James Lipton at the end. But besides those flaws, the film had a hell of a lot of good on offer.
Rey's training was pretty good and the idea of her being drawn to the dark but using common sense and taking the light side was an interesting conflict as was the relationship between Rey and Kylo, a sort of kinship even though they're on opposing sides, but both were being manipulated by Snoke hense the reason they can force link between each other. There were some nice character developments for Kylo, at first he seems to still be torn between both light and dark sides of the force, we see this during the first space battle where he backs down from firing on Leia's ship due to feeling her presence, I mean the dude already murdered his old man. He's clearly torn when he's around Rey and Snoke but it all seems to be a ruse, to implicate Rey in the assassination of Snoke and become the new Supreme chancellor of the First Order. We can clearly see Kylo's completely been absorbed by the darkside towards the end where he will seemingly stop at nothing to kill all the remaining resistance. It's a good development for the character. Hopefully we'll see a more sithy Kylo in Episode 9. Rey's force abilities becoming stronger contribute to some stand out scenes including a pretty badass light sabre battle in Snoke's throne room.
We find out why Luke has gone into exile and closed himself off from the force and there's a nice visit from an old friend who gives Luke his customary jedi advice.
With a shaky first act, followed by a poor second act, The Last Jedi hits all the right points in its incredible third and final act, featuring some incredible imagery that feel like live paintings and a good resolution to the films plot. Hopefully Episode 9 can brings full circle and give us Rey's training by Force Ghost Luke, the rebel alliance coming into its own with the help of the rebels scattered across the systems, the removal of the jedi Superbowl rings and General Hux getting his head cut off in the opening scene and Ade Edmondson getting Hux's Job. Kylo needs to go full on Vader and build a new mask, Phasma returns, minus her helmet so we can see Moses go head to head with Brienne Of Tarth and Poe take command of the Rebel alliance because of the unfortunate passing of Carrie Fisher. JJ You know what you have to do, play it safe, but not too safe.
I have to give Rian Johnson some props, The Last Jedi, while deeply flawed, is still an entertaining addition to the saga and some of the visuals are absolutely stunning, however, and this isn't a dig at either Abrams or Johnson, all of these Disney Star Wars films, including Rogue One, seem to be lacking that George Lucas touch, the Lucas films kept the saturday matinees serial feel through the original trilogy and the prequels and thats what made them so much fun, well maybe not so much the prequels, he went a bit too heavy with the political aspect and his scripts could have been a little less wooden, but still, they're decent films. The new ones while fun and expertly executed, lack that Lucas touch.
The Last Jedi, is a good film, it's not the best Star Wars film, but it's not the worst (Attack Of The Clones, i'm looking at you), It's on par with Revenge Of The Sith i'd say, it should have been this trilogy's Empire, but sadly misses the mark. I struggled to think of a rating to give The Last Jedi, it t's better than a 3 star film and it should probably be 3.5 but as i don't rate in .5's i'm giving TLJ a 4. It's lower end 4 though. Now if we could only get an epic lightsabre duel with the intensity of Return Of The Jedi that would be wonderful.
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